Echolocation

Hi everyone

So today we are talking about echolocation. This is the skill that over one thousand species depend upon to navigate, hunt and avoid obstacles in pitch blankness.

In dolphins and whales, they push air through nasal passages to create the sound which is then concentrated in the melon, which is a blob of fat in the forehead. The sound is made clearer. When the sound hits something, it gets reflected and the echo is then sensed by the dolphin or whale’s lower jaw. It passes through the jaw to the ear and the brain determines size, density, distance, direction and speed. By doing this some species could detect a golfball a football pitch away. They can also tell different fish species apart.

In most bat species, the sound is made in the larynx and is so high-pitched that it is above the human hearing range. It can be up to 140 decibels loud, meaning that the bats have to temporarily ‘turn off’ their hearing before quickly turning it back on to be able to hear the echos. Some bats can detect and avoid wires that are as thin as human hairs and find insects 5m away.

There are many other species that use echolocation such as small mammals, birds and even humans! Some blind or visually impaired people have learnt to make clicking sounds with their tongues or an object, such as a walking stick, and listen to the echos to locate tables, chairs, doors and windows. This is just another great example of people learning from nature!

Your Green World Blog Team💚

Sources:

https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/what-is-echolocation/

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/echolocation-is-nature-built-in-sonar-here-is-how-it-works

Images:

Dolphins: This image, owned by Ricardo Liberato (on flickr.com) is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

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